When creating products that your target customers will buy— products that will drive your business to success and profits, the best way to start is by first identifying your target customer’s problems and needs. By gathering enough information to understand customer frustration should be your first task before anything else such as product development.
Your target market (customers) will have problems that need to be solved. Most likely, they are already online on their desktop or mobile phone to search for solutions to solve their pain point.
So before anything else, even before product development or marketing, you should try to find the answers to the following questions.
What are your target market’s unsatisfied needs and wants?
What are the bottlenecks and pain points that they complain about?
What alternative solutions or hacks are they doing to solve their problems?
The information you get from answering those three simple questions will be the basis on why your customer will eventually be willing to buy your product. Your product should be their answer to those three questions.
If you successfully identify your target market’s frustration, and your product is aligned perfectly to solve their problems, then startup and company are on the right path for profitability and long term success.
If you really think about it, every item or service that we pay for is the answer to a certain unmet need, in it's its basic level. Just a solution for a customer.
So the customer is looking for a solution, and it is your job to find a solution, develop the product that solves their problem.
Consumer Purchase Decision Chart
As you can see from the image above, Problem Identification is the first stage of the consumer’s journey to purchasing. This is where the customers are aware of their problem. It is their pain point.
The obvious next step is Information Search, and that is where marketing should come in. And where does your customer start their Information Search?
Look below. It shouldn't be a surprise to you. We've all been there.
Looking for the complete set of questions to understand your customer's pain points? Then feel free to download my free PDF below.